


Slumber No More

by Tanydwr



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Mythology - Freeform, Reincarnation, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 21:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11112789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tanydwr/pseuds/Tanydwr
Summary: "This is not a world for kings, brother.""But you have made it a world for gods."Arrogance proves the downfall of a god who was once a king - and a president who was once a man.





	Slumber No More

It is a mistake to forget the past.

For too long, the country of Panem had forgot the ancient times, had taught its people to forget the ancient times. Though such names slipped in and out of fashion in the hub that had become the Capitol, their meanings were, to so many, lost.

In other places, other districts, names had greater meaning. For some, they had become the only gift they could bestow upon their children, so hungry was the Capitol to grow fat on the work of others. But these names were not those of ancient worlds long forgotten by most. Some were new, reflective of the world they now lived in. Others grew from the names of the past, their origins forgotten, but so common all knew them. Some were drawn from the world around them, the gleam of light upon a pool’s surface, a plant that promised light.

Some names were not so random as parents thought, for when the past is forgotten, sometimes the past will wake again.

Sometimes the past waits to be forgotten, so its tools may find their place before others see them.

No one notes the cries of a babe born in a storm.

No one considers the hardened heart of a woman who lost husband and child to plague.

And when someone notices that two babes were born on the same night in District Twelve, one merchant, one Seam, as different as night and day, it is marked only in district records and by those few that know them.

Later, things are noticed, but their import unobserved. What does it matter that a boy wins a Game with guile, his district partner dying in a flower-field, that his heart will be darkened in the weeks and years to come, until loneliness is his only companion? What notice is given to the tall, grey-eyed woman who wins by strength and wisdom? What care is given when a handsome boy wins a Game with a trident, when all that matters is that he is so handsome?

No one knew to notice.

Until they began to wake.

But no one recalled the past when a grey-eyed huntress volunteered to fight in her sister’s place, nor when her golden-haired district partner was called out.

Later, they noticed. Later, they understood their mistake.

For now, they let themselves be entranced by a girl’s sharp eyes and inner fire, by a boy’s warm smile and proclamation of love. They let themselves be lulled into complacency.

And then a boy with the sun in his hair called forth a plague of insects to kill his enemies.

Then a girl with the moon in her eyes nocked an arrow and destroyed an arena.

The world forgot, the world turned, and a god had been born to rule.

But he too forgot what had gone before, and revelled too greatly in his power.

He stole his once-brother’s family, after his once-sister died in a field of poisonous flowers.

He sold his once-brother’s body, for the pleasure and alliance of others.

He sent his once-children into the Hunger Games, blind to their identity, unseeing of anything more than determination.

Even he had forgotten, grown too blind to see the threat, to remember what he had done to his own father, in this world and the last.

As he addressed his people, his two once-children appeared in his citadel, armed with spear and bow, the sun and moon at their backs, glimmering in hair and eyes.

“Did you think you ruled the world once more?” the boy demands, and for the first time others could hear the wolf, could feel the burning of the sun.

“Did you think you alone were permitted to shape it?” the girl demands, and they heard the braying of the hunt, felt the chill winds of the night’s air.

Lightning flashed in the sky, but the god had grown too comfortable and complacent, too certain that he alone was there. 

And then he heard the crashing of the sea, caught the glimpse of bronze and felt salt-water spray on his lips.

And then he heard the dirge of death, felt the cool earth as it would fall upon his grave.

“These Games did please you, did they not, brother?” Hades asks, and he remembers his brother has judgement of the dead, and he has taken home fifty-two dead children over the last twenty-three years.

“They gave you power and fear, did they not, brother?” Poseidon snarls, and he remembers the flood that killed the other tributes and saved his own, the girl he loves, and he begins to understand.

“I am your king,” he cries, and they laugh, four voices twining with a wind that begins to howl.

“You are their president,” his brother replies.

“Their leader,” the other adds.

“But not their king,” his children finish.

“Do you remember, Father, what happened to your own?” his daughter asks, and her arrow pierces his thigh, where another of her brothers, in an ancient time, once was held.

“Do you remember that he brought on his own downfall?” his son asks, and his spear moves swiftly, gelding him like a horse, but there is no goddess born from his loss.

“This is not a world for kings, brother,” his eldest brother reminds him, and he can feel his cold hands, his terrible judgement, already weighing upon his shoulders.

“But you have made it a world for gods,” Poseidon murmurs, and there is a dark smile on his lips.

Hi son’s spear takes his heart. His daughter’s arrow takes his throat.

He dies a shamed man, a broken god, one who forgot that just as he overthrew his father, his children might overthrow him.

He was once told it would be the children of Metis that would surpass him.

Never did he suspect the twin children of Leto.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work posted at AO3, and my only Hunger Games fic to date. It was inspired by other readings of mythology-inspired fanfiction in various fandoms, along with Katniss's association with the bow and hunting, and Finnick's with the sea and his trident.
> 
> Snow is the reincarnation of Zeus, King of the Gods, who overthrew his father, Kronos/Cronus. Although the youngest of the gods, he became king by that act, giving Poseidon - Finnick - dominion over the seas and Hades (or Pluto) - Haymitch - dominion over the land of the dead. Leto was the daughter of two of the Titans, whom Zeus seduced and impregnated with Artemis - Katniss, the huntress - and Apollo - Peeta, the artist who loves sunset.
> 
> Hades is often treated badly in modern media, when in the original mythology he was considered one of the kindest and fairest of the gods. Haymitch, who is a good man beneath his gruffness and had to take home dead tributes for twenty-three years, is therefore an obvious choice.
> 
> For anyone uncomfortable with the implications that Katniss and Peeta are both reincarnated twins and potential lovers - well, Artemis was a chaste goddess, and Peeta was clever, so you can read his declaration of love as tactics in this universe.
> 
> Metis, by the way, was a Titan who may have been the first wife of Zeus, but at the very least was his lover. It was predicted that her second child would be more powerful than Zeus. He tricked her into turning herself into a fly and swallowed her - he later got a headache so severe that he had Hephaestus crack him over the head to let Athena, fully grown, out.
> 
> This was a very different style of writing for me when I wrote it, particularly the use of present tense, and I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
